Princeton, Delaware, St. John's, Albany Hire Assistant Coaches

In the wake of this summer's numerous coaching changes, there's been a lot of assistant coach maneuvering that hasn't gotten a lot of attention. Here's a roundup of some hirings that may have slipped beneath the radar during the last month.

At Princeton, former Notre Dame midfielder Mike Podgajny takes over for Stephen Brundage, now at Marquette.

“We are excited to add Mike to our staff,” Tiger coach Chris Bates said. “He is an energetic and bright coach who will add a great deal to our program. I've known of Mike since his days at Ridley High School. His exceptional background as a player, a student and now as a well respected young coach will be a great addition to Princeton Lacrosse.”

Newly named Colgate head coach Mike Murphy hired Dickinson assistant Joe Starsia as his first assistant. Starsia, son of Virginia head coach Dom Starsia, was a defenseman at Lynchburg Collge and has helped the Red Devils experience a rather meteoric rise, going 32-5 over the past two season.

Murphy says he got to know Starsia during his time at the Blue Chip 225 camp and was impressed by his work ethic. He added that Starsia' familiarity with a stringent admissions department at Dickinson will be helpful as he integrates into the recruiting landscape at Colgate.

Murphy said he'd contacted some candidates for the second assistant, but hadn't advanced to the interview process yet.

Tipped off by Brian Brecht bringing in a new staff at Rutgers, former Scarlet Knight assistant Rob Cross went to Delaware to replace J.P. Brazel, now at Hofstra.

“We're extremely excited to have him with us,” Blue Hen coach Bob Shillinglaw said. “I think he brings a wealth of knowledge. In his three years at UMBC, all three were tournament years. He's great with the offense, great with skills, great with goalies, and all the coaches we've spoken to speak of how hard a worker he is.”

The other Scarlet Knight assistant from last season, Errol Wilson, is now at St. John's, taking the place of Brian Jacovina, who's also at Rutgers. Wilson was at Brown prior to his year in Piscataway.

“Obviously, I'm very pleased to be able to bring in a guy with Errol's experience,” St. John's head coach Jason Miller said. “I'm pretty confident he'll be able to make significant contributions at both ends of the field, especially with his ability to mentor Jeff Lowman and the rest of the crew of young goalies we have. I'm also really excited about the personality Errol will bring to our office. We had a great dynamic with Brian, Dan Paccione and myself and I don't see us taking a step backwards in that area.”

Albany's Scott Marr will have a full new staff in 2012 with Chris Kivlen now the head coach at Montclair State and Billy Ralph having left coaching. Eric Wolf, who played for Marr and has been an assistant at Siena since graduating in ’07, will take one of those roles, and the other appears close to being filled.

Army coach Joe Alberici also appears close to naming a replacement to assistant Mike Murphy, however IL could not confirm a candidate. Among the other assistant coach openings IL's looking to confirm are Jim Nagle's staff at Stony Brook, Hobart's replacement for John Svec and Svec's staff at Siena, Taylor Wray's replacement at Lehigh and his staff at St. Joe's and Bucknell's replacement for Judd Lattimore, as well as the Bellarmine and Jacksonville head coach openings.